/// Former Apple CEO Says Newton "Scribble Thing" Was 15 Years Ahead of Its Time

When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he famously killed off a number of products for the good of the company. Top among them was the Newton, for which Jobs had a profound distaste. Asked what he thought of the device during a Q&A at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference that year, Jobs slagged it as worthless, in a remark oddly prefigurative of the iPhone (see video below). “I tried a Newton,” he said. “I bought one of the early ones; I thought it was a piece of junk, I threw it away. I bought one of the Motorola Envoys; I thought it was a piece of junk after three months and threw it away. … Here’s my problem [with these devices]: My problem is, to me, the high-order bit is connectivity. The high-order bit is being in touch, connected to a network. … What I want is this little thing that I carry around with me that’s got a keyboard on it — because to do email you need a keyboard. … And it needs to be connected to the Net. So if somebody would just make a little thing where you’re connected to the Net at all times, and you’ve got a little keyboard. God, I’d love to buy one.

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Talk NYC/WW is your daily download of the tech, marketing and advertising news you need to know. It’s smartly curated to keep you up to speed on the innovators and innovations that are shaking up the digital world today.